OVERVIEW
Fishing Black owners are getting a hand on the tiller.
SECTOR INSIGHT New fishing rights will be allocated in 2020.
T
he acquisition by black-controlled Sea Harvest Group of Viking Fishing in 2018 is part of a larger trend in which empowered companies are taking controlling shares in fishing companies. This is in anticipation of black shareholding likely being a strong factor in the determination of new fishing rights, which will happen in 2020. Sea Harvest paid R885-million for Viking. Sea Harvest has also added to its fleet a R130-million stern-fishing trawler, which can catch and process up 7 000 tons per year and can freeze up to 40 tons per day. Sea Harvest’s return to the main board of the JSE in March 2017 brought to three the number of major fishing companies represented on Africa’s biggest stock exchange. Premier Fishing also made its shares available to the public for the first time while Oceana Group, a Tiger Brands company, has been on the JSE for 70 years. The Oceana Group has purchased Foodcorp’s fishing rights and a US fishmeal and oil company, Daybrook. The biggest brand performer for Oceana is Lucky Star canned pilchards, which enjoys 80% of market share in South Africa. The Western Cape is responsible for about 75% of the nation’s fishing. The value of the national catch across 22 commercial fishing sectors is about R6-billion. Sectors range from the highly capitalised deep-sea trawling industry to much smaller lobster and abalone operations.
ONLINE RESOURCES Fish SA: www.fishsa.org.za National Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries: www.daff.gov.za SA Deep Sea Trawling Industry Association: www.sadstia.co.za South African Maritime Safety Authority: www.samsa.org.za
WESTERN CAPE BUSINESS 2019
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Demersal fish such as hake and kingklip account for 46% of the national catch, with pelagic fish (anchovy, pilchards and sardines) making up 23%. Lobster makes up 11% and linefish 13%. The National Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries wants to restructure the horse mackerel industry to promote local fishers and processors. Most of South Africa’s large food companies have fishing divisions. Pioneer Fishing, which has no connection to the multi-product group Pioneer Foods, controls a canning, fishmeal and fish oil factory in St Helena Bay and a processing and freezing factory in the Port Elizabeth harbour. The African Pioneer Group holds a 40% stake in the company, which was formed as a joint venture with Suiderland to control the latter’s fishing rights. Premier Fishing and Brands Limited, a subsidiary of Sekunjalo Investments, runs 16 vessels and operates at seven locations, including a 1 760-ton cold storage facility at the V&A Waterfront. The company has lobster plants at Port Nolloth and Hout Bay, and a fish meal plant at Saldanha. Dromedaris Visserye specialises in Cape lobster, and supplies sardines and anchovies to China and Japan.
